The Cambridge, Massachusetts City Council was the first in the United States to place stickers on gas station pumps warning drivers of the impact of fossil fuels on the planet’s climate. “Burning gasoline, diesel and ethanol has dire consequences for human health and the environment, including contributing to climate change,” the yellow stickers warn.
A representative of the Cambridge City Council, which houses the famous Harvard University, announced that stickers will begin to be installed at all gas stations in the city “very soon” – as soon as they are printed.
The posting follows a law passed by the city council in January last year, which provides for measures aimed at reducing emissions of exhaust gases warming the planet’s atmosphere by 80% by 2035, and by 2050 such emissions should be completely stopped, which will make Cambridge “hydrocarbon-neutral “.
In the United States, vehicles – mostly cars and trucks – are responsible for a quarter of the hydrocarbons released into the atmosphere, but this fact did not affect the American addiction to large, high-energy vehicles. The continuing boom in the sport utility vehicle market could lead to increased emissions of pollutants in the atmosphere unless measures are taken to tighten standards to limit such emissions.
Warning stickers such as those intended to be posted in Cambridge are already in use in Sweden. However, a similar action in Berkeley (California) was not successful.
Newspaper headline:
Timely reminder